What it actually does
tawk.to is still tawk.to. Legal name tawk.to inc., 187 East Warm Springs Rd, Las Vegas. Product launched October 2013. Bootstrapped. No 2024 to 2026 acquisition. There is no Plus plan and no per-seat grid. /plans 404s. /pricing is a founder essay.
It is a free website live-chat widget and a shared inbox. Tickets, a knowledge base, and a light CRM sit on the same $0 core. You paste a snippet, or use the WordPress plugin or Shopify app. Unlimited human agents. Unlimited chats. The badge says Powered by tawk.to unless you buy Whitelabel.
AI Assist is a separate SKU. Hobby is free, 100 message credits a month, one AI agent. Growth is $29 a month per property. Business $99. Enterprise $399. Overage on paid plans is $30 per 1,000 credits. That is a website bot, not a phone. Voice Agents is a 2026 add-on that markets inbound answering on a real number from $49 a month plus usage. Usage is Custom. Do not put it on this card and do not tag ai-receptionists. In-widget Video plus Voice is WebRTC at $49 a month cash, not PSTN.
No missed-call text-back SKU. No reviews product. No GBP. No Jobber, Housecall Pro, Dentrix, Mindbody, or Clio. Zapier showed up in the Q1 2026 update. That is still Zapier.
Who should buy it
Buy the free widget if you have a site and someone will answer from the phone app while they are at the desk. A salon or dentist with online booking can run Hobby after hours until 100 AI replies are gone. Then Growth is $29, the same cash as Tidio Starter.
Do not buy it as a receptionist. Do not buy Voice Agents as if it were Smith.ai. Do not buy Hired Agents ($129 to $728 a month) and call it software. If you wanted a paid widget with Lyro, Tidio at $29. If you wanted WhatsApp in the same inbox, Crisp Essentials is $95. LiveChat Starter is $25 a user. Chatbase is $40 if the job is a FAQ bot you own.
The reason not to buy is you still have to staff it, and the paid extras do not refund. Live August 25, 2026: core is Free. Remove Branding is $39 a month or $348 a year. The add-ons page prints $29. That is annualized. Video is $49 a month cash, not $29. ToS (April 9, 2025): no refunds or credits if you cancel or downgrade. Help: yearly subscriptions cannot be paused. Trustpilot indexed: PayPal still charging after a confirmed cancel; a $144 annual pulled two years after the widget came off the site. G2 stale cards still list branding at $19 and a Plus tier. Dead. Do not use them.
The verdict
Capterra, GetApp, and Software Advice 4.6 from 345 (one Gartner pool, live HTML). Star split 223 / 102 / 13 / 3 / 4. Newest body July 15, 2026. G2 live HTML blocked (DataDome 403); indexed 4.5 from 181 to 202. Trustpilot live HTML blocked (CloudFront 403); indexed about 2.2 to 2.5 from 88 to 106. TrustRadius live 8.5 from 20. BBB A-plus, not accredited, zero complaints in 12 months, two in three years, zero customer reviews. Reddit: none retrieved. Zero named plumber, dentist, salon, HVAC, or law-firm review bodies. Reviewers are agencies, web shops, and SMB software.
Official core August 25, 2026: Free. Do not invent a Plus price. Do not publish $29 as monthly branding.
Situational. The $0 widget is real if you will answer it. If the leak is the phone, this is the wrong aisle. If you wanted after-hours AI without sitting on the bubble, Tidio.